Dem Rep Says He Will Rethink Kissing Every Woman in a Room; MSNBC Anchor Recounts Kissing Dan Rather

Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.) said he has to rethink "the way I've done business myself" during an interview concerning the alleged sexual misconduct of Rep. John Conyers.

"I think people do have to understand that as a public official, like myself, there are things all of us got to be questioning," Meeks told MSNBC's Chris Jansing.

"For example, I'll say something about the way I've done business myself. When I go into a room and there's a bunch of women sitting at the table, I go into my campaign, generally, you know, not thinking of anything else, you'd go around and I would kiss every woman on the cheek," Meeks said.

"Maybe I shouldn't do that," Meeks added. "You've got to think–I have to think about that, to be honest with you. We have to rethink because I haven't thought about it."

He used to think of it as a "pleasant" greeting, he explained.

"I thought about it as saying, here I am greeting you in a pleasant way and I've had some women when I felt or looked somebody that felt uneasy I wouldn't kiss them," Meeks said.

"But then others when I pass them by, they say ‘Hey, how come you kissed this one and you didn't kiss me?' But we have to rethink on all of that–" Meeks continued.

Jansing recounted a conversation she had with Dan Rather about this type of behavior.

"And I agree with you," Jansing said. "That's one thing. I was just having this conversation actually this morning with Dan Rather because I've known him a long time, and we kissed each other on the cheek and we made a joke, an uncomfortable joke about should we be doing that."

"I understand what you're saying," Jansing continued. "That's not the kind of accusation that's been made against your friend and colleague, John Conyers."

Conor BeckEmail Conor | Full Bio | RSSConor Beck is a Media Analyst for the WFB. He's previously written for The College Fix, Life News, and was a Student Free Press Association Fellow for The Weekly Standard. He graduated from Rice University in 2017.